June 3, 2011

Arctic Death...kinda really sucks...(Buffalo Rant)

So every time I decide to leave the shelter of my home and venture out into the wide world of the city of Buffalo, I always come back feeling a tad...annoyed. This blog post may explain why. I'm sorry that this is sort of a "local" post I don't do these too often, but I need to vent. And unfortunately this band will take the brunt of it.

Ok so they're from Buffalo, which automatically means every publication within the city limits has praised them endlessly. Unfortunately I have an undying hatred for my own city (don't even get me STARTED on the "Edward Sharpe and Magnetic Zeros" crowd at Thursday at the square yesterday...I'll save that for my next blog post). Anyways I have grown to see through much of the hype that have propelled a bunch of these "bands" to notoriety, because I mean I lived in Toronto, so c'mon, I know by now what decent local music sounds like. Anyways Arctic Death is slightly better than the regular fair exhibited in most Buffalo bars, but that's as far as I will go. In terms of reviewing local music I always liked to take it out of context, such as "Is this something I would actually listen to if the guys in the band weren't from the surrounding Buffalo suburbs? (notice I didn't say CITY)" The answer is "HELL NAW." The lead singer's voice is so nasal to the point where I feel like I get induced sinus headaches. I mean props for actually having a melody but when all your songs have the same GRATING sounds (on top of his voice I CAN'T STAND HIS VOICE) as well as the overall "blahness" of the songs...there's nothing really special about the music or the band. But that should be sorta expected from a bunch of suburbanites who moved to the elmwood "village" (notice people its not called STRIP anymore) only to grow mustaches, wear beanies and prance around the neighborhood like they live in Brooklyn. Did I just say that? I think I did...oops. Well if the entire arts community comes running after me with pitchforks I'm only going say this: Buffalo you can't take ANY negative criticism from anyone which is why our "music scene" is so embarrassingly LAME...because without any sort of constructive criticism no one is allowed to develop or grow. Why am I so bitter? Because I freaking grew up here, I freaking dressed like a freaking "hipster" my entire life only to move back and be antagonized by these newbies from the 'burbs' who now apparently believe that living in an urban environment means shunning their hot-topic mall punk roots and buying the entire urban outfitters catalog. End of rant. Anyways I will post the music below as I always do, simply because just because I get a bad taste in my mouth doesn't mean you will. Hell there is plenty of stuff i can't stand that other people LOVE (Animal Collective, EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROS, Katy Perry, Girls, Nicki Minaj....I could go on).

1 comment:

Is this something I would actually listen to if the guys in the band weren't from the surrounding Buffalo suburbs? This should be the number one criterion when judging Buffalo bands, though not the only. I write this as I sample Grand National's (RIP) King Size EP on Amazon (which I plan to buy).Good stuff!Ed